With This Ring
by Cirronian de Bergerac
Summary: Mel & Cole contemplate wedding rings


With This Ring  
  
Cole & Mel contemplate their temporary wedding bands Set during Love, Cirronian Style  
  
I don't own them. They all belong to Lion's Gate and the creative Mr. Grant who brought their world to us. Making no money just thinking in e-print.  
  
Feedback appreciated.  
  
Cole concentrated on putting his war room to rights. The Orsian twins had wreaked minor havoc while trying to release the captured convicts. A bright silver flash caught his eye. Raising his left hand he stared at the shining band. His mind evaluated again the idea that a thin metal circle could represent the love, honor and respect of a bonded pair.  
  
Turning his hand to and fro he pondered the possibilities inherent in the band of silver. To make such a promise to a person on blind faith, giving your heart, your soul into the care of another without truly knowing their intentions. These humans made such a leap of faith.  
  
During a Cirronian bonding, every thought, every emotion was shared. For one brief instant during the mating each of the souls of the joined pair was completely open to the other. There were no secrets. And after the twinning, each consort would be absolutely sure of the love each bore the other.  
  
Watching the ring sparkle, Cole's thoughts turned to Mel. He would give anything to be able to give her this symbol in love. What would it be like to know that Mel was his, to be able to join with her and to share his body as she already sharing his soul.  
  
Feeling his body flush with the now familiar feelings, humans called it arousal, Cole grudgingly reigned in his musings. Cole released the ring he had been absently turning on his finger, he refused to dwell on his reluctance to part with it. It was nearly painful to look at the circlet, to know that it was only a prop. He slowly headed downstairs to give it back to Mel.  
  
Standing behind the bar with Cole, listening to him describe Cirronian mating, Mel's heart gave a lurch. Oh God! To know that union with Cole, to share souls, to become one being instead of two she would give anything. She felt so much for him now with her limiting human form. But she knew that what she could give him could never compete with what he had lost when he lost his wife?  
  
Helplessly Mel watched Cole's face, he was alight with the rememberence of the joy he had once known. The band on his hand seemed to mock her. It taunted her with what could never be hers. She looked away slightly, unable to bear the painful tightening within her chest. Cole's hands dropped and he turned back to the bar. The last of her secrect hope died as he tugged the ring firmly from his hand.  
  
The hidden part within her that nurtured the idea that maybe, someday they could find a way to be together, shriveled. He had a job to do and afterward he would return home. Maybe he would find another mate. Someone with whom he could share a bond with that was far more than she could ever offer.  
  
She was a hinderance, a distraction at best. She watched him walk away, feeling as though he was walking out of her life rather than out of the room. The silver band seemed to burn her palm, hot with implications. It represented all she would never have. Somehow she knew there would never be another in her life. There would be no moment of bliss, no moment of being everything imaginable with Cole. She would only have the joy of his friendship, of being his partner for a brief while then he would be gone.  
  
Her eyes filled with tears as she looked down the dark tunnel of her future. She would grow old with only the rememberance of his single kiss to warm her body at night. She would live on the feelings he engendered with his broad palm over her heart. She would dream forever, of the silver circlets adorning both of their entwined hands, given and accepted in love. And she knew that when she died she would leave the world with his name on her lips.  
  
Such a small token, this thin metal band, to elicit so much pain and sorrow. She looked at the silver circlet and whispered "with this ring" then closed her eyes and wept. 


End file.
